Trent & Mersey Canal breach Appeal

The Canal & River Trust have launched an appeal to raise funds to help repair the breach on the Trent & Mersey canal caused by the extraordinary recent weather.

The 240-year-old Trent & Mersey Canal is a bustling artery of our canal network and key part of the Cheshire Ring providing jobs in the local area, habitats for a huge range of waterway wildlife and a much-valued nationally recognised route for walkers and cyclists.

When launching the appeal, The Canal & River Trust (CRT) made the following statement:

“As a result of the recent breach we’ve had to close a 12-mile stretch to navigation while we carry out the massive repairs necessary to secure the canal. Canal breaches are exceptionally rare, although they are extremely expensive to fix and the repair bill for the damage on the Trent & Mersey Canal is estimated at £1.5 million.”

“We’re asking you to make a donation to this emergency appeal to help us rebuild the canal embankment and complete other flood repairs. While we hold a contingency fund that can be used to deal with this kind of emergency situation, this is money that we urgently need to spend on essential maintenance and repairs right across the network.

Using this money to repair this breach will inevitably prevent other important work being carried out this winter – unless we are able to raise additional income now.”

“By making a donation today you will be contributing directly towards the labour and materials needed to complete this work.”

David Baldacchino, waterway manager explains: “The money that you donate will help fund the repair of the breached canal bank and complete a significant repair to a bank near Middlewich which has also been damaged by the flooding.

£1.5m is equivalent to 30 sets of lock gates replaced, a third of our current annual dredging programme or three years worth of the money that we expect to spend painting bridges.”

Donate by text

To donate £5 by SMS, text BREACH to 70800.

You will be charged £5 plus one message at your standard network rate. The Canal & River Trust will recieve a donation of at least £4.97 from all major networks of your £5.

By using this service you agree that we may contact you in the future. If you would rather we didn’t text DECLINE to 70007.

2 comments to Trent & Mersey Canal breach Appeal

Now that the government has been allowed to divest itself of the responsibility for maintaining our inland waterways we can see what the impact will be. At the first major breach the CRT has to bring out the public begging bowl. I hope the repairs will be commenced as soon as they would have been under BW and not have to wait until the £1.5 million is raised from this appeal. I also "trust" that the government will be asked to make a bigger contribution towards the contingency fund as I am sure they will be contributing towards the repair of damage to road and rail infrastrucure caused by the recent floods.

Its interesting that your take is that government ‘has been allowed to divest itself’ whereas I think the vast majority of informed commentators would take the view that government was convinced by years of lobbying by stakeholders that the waterways needed to be freed from government shackles.

CRT hasn’t been forced to bring out the begging bowl – it has sufficient funds to manage the repair but it – in my view, wisely – decided to ask users to help cover the cost of the repair so that other work planned for this winter can go ahead. In fact, we learned at the CRT AGM last week, that the current state of funding is actually ahead of forecast and that £50 million will be spent of repairs over this winter. That was before th breach and the cost of the breach is not expected to affect that budget as there are sufficient reserves in hand to cover the anticipated £1.5 million bill to also repair the breach.